A Sampling of Clips for 
November 13 - 17, 2003

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

California In Motion
New York Times, Nov. 16-Simon Winchester, the author of "The Meaning of Everything", is working on a new book about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. As part of his research, he visits the network of real-time Global Positioning System monitors, established by a team from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, on a hilltop in La Jolla.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/travel/sophisticated/16ST-CALI.html

Seeking the Best Treatment for a Baffling Disorder
Los Angeles Times, Nov. 17-Polycystic ovarian syndrome, a baffling disorder which causes facial hair and obesity in adolescent girls and ultimately infertility, is caused by the production of too many androgen hormones, such as testosterone. As part of the effort to better understand and treat the condition, a national study will test two drugs -- the diabetes drug metformin and the infertility drug clomiphene citrate -- for their ability to help women with the disorder become pregnant. R. Jeffrey Change, M.D., director of reproductive endocrinology at UC San Diego is one of the study's investigators.
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-lab17nov17,1,878485.story

Diminutive Clam Digs in for the Long Haul
The Baltimore Sun, Nov. 17-Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego are studying a clam that can extend its foot up to 30 times the length of its shell into the mud. Researchers believe it's the most extreme case of animal structure elongation ever discovered. (Quote by Suzanne Defour, a doctoral candidate in marine biology at the University of California, San Diego.)
http://www.sunspot.net/news/nationworld/bal-te.clams17nov17,0,3049399.story

Unchecked Disease Can Prove Fatal For Children
SanDiegoChannel.com, Nov. 13-Cold and flu season is upon us, but so is another lesser-known problem, especially for children. It is called Kawasaki disease, and if left unchecked, it could result in fatal consequences years later. Jane Burns works at the University of California, San Diego and has been studying the disease for 22 years. There is still no known cause, but early diagnosis is critical. http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/health/2636962/detail.html

Raising Lichtenstein in Manhattan
New York Times, Nov. 14-This weekend a team of five riggers will begin assembling a 50-foot-tall fiberglass sculpture called "Element E," created by the Pop Art master Roy Lichtenstein 13 years before his death in 1997. The sculpture is one of four Lichtensteins being installed this weekend in Lower Manhattan. The piece was originally commissioned for the sculpture gardens of the Stuart Collection at the La Jolla campus of the University of California, San Diego.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/14/arts/design/14INSI.html

The Banality of Gary
Washington Post, Nov. 16- As the admitted Green River Killer, Gary Leon Ridgway has claimed responsibility for 48 documented corpses, with an estimated 12 more moldering in the woods. He killed for 20 years without getting caught -- a North American record for murderous longevity. After his recent confession on Nov. 5, doctors now try to unravel the most important question about the numerous killings- why? (Quote by Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist and associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California in San Diego.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46390-2003Nov15.html

Magnetic Effect Sends Physicists into a Spin
Nature, Nov. 13-Ballistic magnetoresistance (BMR), was an effect so huge that it promised to increase the storage of computer hard-drives a thousand times over, but physicists are now clashing over whether it was just a mistake. (Quote by Ami Berkowitz, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego.)
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v426/n6963/full/426110a_fs.html

San Diego Fire Warnings Were Repeatedly Ignored
Los Angeles Times, Nov. 15-County officials have repeatedly been warned that too few firefighters combined with dry back-country brush and Santa Ana winds could produce uncontrollable wildfires nearly identical to those that killed 16 people and destroyed 2,469 homes last month. Despite the warnings, local leaders and voters both failed to implement recommendations that fire officials said would help fight a massive wildfire. (Quote by John A. Andersen, former police chief at UC San Diego.)
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-warnings15nov15000424,1,7880517.story

Shock Therapy and the Brain
Los Angeles Times, Nov. 17-In recent decades, electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, has undergone a transformation, many psychiatrists say. The body no longer thrashes violently, as depicted in movies a generation ago; it lies still, under medication, with the thrashing confined to the mind. Techniques are more precise, they say; the brain better understood. (Quote by Loren Mosher, M.D., a clinical professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego.)
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-ect17nov17,1,6907810.story

New Drug Shows Promise Against Arthritis
Associated Press, Nov. 13-An experimental drug designed to shut down the body's misguided assault on its own joints is showing promise against rheumatoid arthritis, relieving its crippling effects with few, if any, side-effects. It could give doctors another weapon in their arsenal of drugs against rheumatoid arthritis. Other drugs target some of the processes that underlie rheumatoid arthritis, but this is the first to attack the disease in precisely this way. (Quote by Gary Firestein, M.D., a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Diego.)
* No link available online.

Same article appeared in:
Ottawa Citizen, Nov. 13
* No link available online.

Aging Baby Boomers Turn to Hormone
San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 17- Amid recent revelations that elite athletes may be abusing human growth hormone to build muscles and break records, a large and flourishing practice on the fringe of American medicine has also been promoting its use among aging and affluent Baby Boomers hoping to feel young again. (Quote by Ron Rothenberg, M.D., a professor of family medicine at UC San Diego.)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/17/MNGEV33KQD1.DTL

Snore Wars
NBCSandiego.com, Nov. 14-Snoring can strain a marriage, a relationship -- but not if you do something about it. While millions of Americans snore, millions of others listen to them and doctors say you may want to do something about it. (Quote by Daniel Kripke, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego.)
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/health/2639637/detail.html

Women Weigh the Risks vs. the Benefits of Hormone Therapy
Copley News Service, Nov. 17-In the last 15 months since a national study detected increased health risks for long-term users of a hormone treatment, women across the country have been feeling frustrated and perplexed as they question the wisdom of using hormones during and after menopause. (Quote by Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, M.D., professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California San Diego.)
* No link available online.

Trolley to Core of UCSD Backed
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 15-A proposed San Diego Trolley line from Old Town to University City should go right to the heart of the UC San Diego campus, transportation planners recommended. The alignment endorsed yesterday by the San Diego Association of Governments' Transportation Committee could cost $90 million more than a simpler alternative running along the east side of Interstate 5, depending on other choices that will come later.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sat/metro/news_1m15trolley.html

Into Thin Air
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 12-A new study published in the September issue of the Geological Societyof America Bulletin, proposes a new explanation to the massive die-off of 90% of earth's creatures more than two hundred fifty million years ago: The denizens of the Permian period died of altitude sickness caused by a drastic decline in atmospheric oxygen. (Quote by John West, M.D., a professor of medicine and physiology at UCSD.)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20031112-9999_1c12permian.html

The Case for Regulating Derivatives
San Diego Union-Tribune, Opinion, Nov. 13- Alan Greenspan says they play "an exceptionally important role" in the world economy, while Warren Buffett dubbed them "financial weapons of mass destruction." Both were talking about derivatives -- financial instruments that derive their value from an underlying security or reference. (Article written by Doug Ramsey, director of Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California San Diego.)
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/thu/opinion/news_mz1e13case.html

A Drop in the Bucket
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 15-On a typical day, the equivalent of 15 million flushes flows into a gray concrete facility overlooking Interstate 805 in University City. Water reclamation is a popular concept. But in practice, few potential customers want it and fewer still can afford to install the purple pipes needed to carry it. A market study estimated that customers would use twice as much reclaimed water as they do. The University of California, San Diego was expected to take 195 million gallons or more a year. Actual use by UCSD last year was 40 million gallons.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sat/news/news_1n15reclaim.html

Rebuilding is Expected to Boost Economy
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 17-Economists agree that while there will be an effect on the local economy, the payments for fire damages will not be big enough to have an effect on statewide employment or gross regional product numbers. California's economy is just too big and too diverse for the infusion of cash to be anything but a blip. (Quote by Ross Starr, a University of California, San Diego economics professor.) http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/mon/news/news_1n17economy.html

Latin Americans Focus of Discussion
San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 15-A panel of experts at UCSD today will explore the role Latin American immigrants play in the development of their native countries and the U.S. communities where they live. Remittances from Mexicans in the United States alone total $14.5 billion, making them the country's second largest source of foreign income, according to a recent study by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Pew Hispanic Center.
* No link available online.

Unlocking The Power Of The Grid
Australian Financial Review, Nov. 17-The next big thing in technology is grid computing. Grids link high-performance computers, workstations and scientific instruments together in high-speed networks that can then sort, define and access data or apply massive amounts of computational grunt. Australian scientists will join up with others from the San Diego Supercomputer Center to demonstrate a computational chemistry experiment that will marshall grid resources from across the globe. Up to 30 supercomputers will be involved, scattered across 10 countries, and spanning facilities managed by the Pacific Rim Applications and Grid Middleware Assembly, the Australian Grid Forum and the TeraGrid.
* No link available online.

Fire official: Helicopters Could have Flown in First Day's Winds
San Diego Daily Transcript, Nov. 4-Despite statements from public officials suggesting the contrary, weather conditions would've allowed firefighting helicopters into the air during the first full day of last week's firestorms, the San Diego Fire Department's aerial coordinator said Tuesday. (Quote by Steve Erie, a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego.)
* No link available online.

Firefighting Efforts, Coordination to Undergo Microscope
San Diego Daily Transcript, Nov. 3-In the beginning hours of what would become the most devastating firestorm in California history, an inflexible bureaucracy and strict safety guidelines grounded aerial firefighting resources as small brushfires morphed into hellish blazes. The issues to be re-examined in the coming weeks, months and possibly even years read like a what's what of the bureaucratic function itself: intergovernmental cooperation, growth guidelines, public safety procedures, the allocation of resources, vegetation management, fire suppression, and so on. (Quote by Steve Erie, a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego.)
* No link available online.